Saltwater Assault Guide Service

Monday, one of my favorite fishing companions, Royce Ashley, and I lamented that we had had enough of watching the wind blow and decided to tolerate the conditions and hit the water.

The wind was blowing from the southwest, albeit not as strong as in days past, when we left dock. Water clarity was not good in most places.

We headed for the North Jetty as I felt the wind would pick up and we might find some good water early in the day.

We stopped along the channel side near the boat cut and found water clarity to be marginal. After about a half-hour we moved to the Gulf side near the sunken barge.

There we ran into all sorts of action on Spanish mackerel, sharks, jack crevalle and croaker. It was good to just reel in some nice fish.

Sometime late morning, the wind switched to the southeast, and we decided to move closer to the Bolivar beach front.

About a mile off the beach, the water was clear green and lots of bait were working.

There we anchored and for the next two hours limited out on specks to 5 pounds, with all being the typical jetty quality specimens.

Drum, ladyfish and nice sized sheepshead rounded out our catch. Popping corks with live shrimp did the trick at the end of the jetties, while free-lined shrimp was the bait of choice in the surf. What a great day to be on the water, especially when the wind switched to the southeast.

Capt Greg Francis, Saltwater Assault Guide Service, was fishing not too far from us and placed his three guests onto two limits of trout to 20 inches. Free-lined live shrimp worked for them as well.

Sunday, several local anglers celebrated Father’s Day by fishing the jetties.

Capt. David Kowalezyk spent the day with his 13-year-old daughter catching sharks, bull reds, sand trout and gafftop at the jetties. Large sharks were breaking their 200-pound monofilament leader.

“What a great way to enjoy Father’s Day” was Kowalezyk’s remark.

In addition to Father’s Day, Sarah Melcer and her husband celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary at their “honey hole” at the North Jetty.

Five bull reds, three bull sharks to 6 feet and five gafftop were caught in celebration of the two occasions. The sharks and reds were released, and squid and mullet were the baits.

Our last Father’s Day report comes from Jose Ruiz, of Houston, who enjoyed a North Jetty fishing trip late Sunday. Two large bull reds, five gafftop and four sharks in the 20-pound range, all released, were his group’s catch.

Offshore action continues to be outstanding and we will list the offshore catches in Wednesday’s Reel Report.

To get your catch in the Reel Report, phone Capt. Joe Kent at 409-683-5273, or send an e-mail to reel.report(at)galvnews.com. There’s no charge for this service.